#whadif

Behind the Scenes for Mt. Pleasant

By: 1st Prize Winner, Hugh Brownstone

Our Mt. Pleasant video began with a change of heart: while we loved coming up with concepts for the Mt. Pleasant Animal Shelter campaign and were excited that one of our concepts won, we hadn’t intended to go beyond that point. As a very small company with many other plates spinning, our thought was that we didn’t have room for pro bono work at that moment.

Yet we simply changed our minds at the last minute. We decided that we wanted the experience of moving through all of the phases of a production under tight deadlines, and figured we’d learn a great deal in a very short timeframe while promoting a worthy cause.

We did!

We took the storyboarding process that we’d applied in the NAPA campaign to plan out the shoot for a renegade concept we felt we could actually produce. We loved our Speed Dating concept, but we knew that it would simply require more planning, permission, time, equipment, staff, and budget than were available to us. The concept that we ran with — Pet Concierge — began with our fond memories of the movie THE PARENT TRAP. This quickly morphed into an homage to the Eloise books and was one that we’d brainstormed during the concept phase but forgot to submit!

Claudia and I batted ideas around script ideas like we always do, and it wasn’t long before we had our script — and were off and running.

But we then faced multiple, simultaneous challenges:

What hotel would let us bring in a dog, take over their lobby — and do so on such short notice?

Where are we find the right dog?

Where were we going to get the actors?

Who could help us with the actual shoot?

How would we shoot the opening sequence when it called for — but we didn't have access to — a stabilizer?

And how were we going to mic this when we only had one wireless lav set?

We were immediately fortunate that a dear friend of ours and filmmaker and photographer in his own right, Tom Hartmann, jumped at the opportunity to pitch in as our sound and lighting guy. He says he’s not a gearhead, but he’s in major denial — luckily for us!

The very next thing we did was contact a really beautiful hotel, The Hotel Monaco, in Philly. We’ve stayed in a number of Kimpton hotels and know they’re really stylish; staffed with really nice people; and are pet-friendly.

And we’d scouted it earlier for another project.

Yet they turned us down — nicely. After all, we were asking them to make this happen on very short notice, on one of the busiest weekends of the year — Memorial Day! They loved the idea and wanted to help, but they just couldn’t accommodate us.

And we hadn’t even found a dog or acting talent.

We thought “OK, we tried. But it really IS too much work; we don’t have any of the other pieces; so that’s that — let’s call it a day and plan on going to the beach.”

But….

We were walking our own dog later that same day (Sophie is way too big and…frenetic, shall we say?) when we bumped into a neighbor and we thought “wait, a minute, THEY have the PERFECT dog.” By that night, we'd firmed it up with Eileen Provost: she’d make her mini-Doberman mix, Bella, available for the shoot.

Now we reversed ourselves again. We reached out to a number of other local hotels, but they all — to varying degrees — had the same response: great cause, but not practical on such short notice at such a busy time of year.

Once again, we thought, “OK, we really tried, but it’s just not happening — and we don’t have the actors yet anyway.”

And again, but...

That’s when we got an email from a friend of a friend — a great guy named Steve — saying he’d be happy to play the role of concierge and oh, by the way, he had a daughter if we were still looking for a young girl.

Really?

OK, now we HAD to find a way to make this work.

We thought about the very reasonable objections the hotels couldn’t overcome, most especially inconveniencing guests as they were checking in or checking out.

And that’s when it hit us: what if we filmed at the hotel when the guests weren’t IN the lobby?

Like, say, 5:30 AM?

We went back to our first choice, the Hotel Monaco. Kristin Huxta, their area public relations manager, was fantastic — and with our new proposal, was able to get us to “yes.”

We were in! IF we could get Steve and his daughter Audrey — and Eileen with her Bella — at the hotel by, yep, 5:30AM.

The rest, as you now know, is history. Everyone was absolutely wonderful and eagerly contributed to the Mt. Pleasant Animal Shelter mission (Eileen actually came in the night before so that Bella would be well-rested and ready for her close-up). Steve and Audrey were troopers. And we wouldn’t have gotten the shots without Tom’s lighting (we’ve cut over to all LED’s now).

Finally, with all that, we were still packed up and out by 8:00AM!!

We learned so much in the process — and felt so good doing it — we’d do it again.

Armani Smith, of LA production company Live Art Love, was our top grand prize winner in the NAPA Auto Parts project. He and his sister, Tiffany Smith, wrote, directed and produced the 1st place version of Broken Down Marine. We caught up with Armani one sunny summer day to ask him how he does it – how THEY do it. As we found out, he and Tiffany are a team, a unit, and they do all of their projects together.

Going to school at Cal State Northridge for marketing, Armani knew he didn’t want to work for anyone. He’s always been a self-starter and loves taking on new challenges. After spending time working with friends at a bigger production company, Armani and Tiffany decided to see what they could do all on their own. They already had many of the skills to run a production company under their belts, but had to figure out the ins and outs of the business themselves. That was just three short years ago, and in that time, they’ve had great success with documentaries, interviews and (a big part of their work) commercials.

In fact, their video for NAPA is airing on national television this summer! How’s that for commercial success?

Something that we loved about Armani and Tiffany is how positive and optimistic they are. Even after working long, 12 hour days to get just the right shots, they are upbeat and happy – because doing film is what they love. It’s inspiring to hear that someone’s so passionate about their work that they can’t wait to get up and do it everyday, even on a day off.

When I asked Armani who he had been in a past life, he said, “A stubborn individual. If I had to be somebody, I would be somebody who doesn’t listen to logic. I’ve always been a dreamer. Anything anyone has told me that was impossible, I’ve wanted to do that.” Well, making the winning video for NAPA wasn’t necessarily impossible, but they didn’t know their chances going into the project, and they made it happen!

When Armani and Tiffany heard about Whadif, they immediately liked the testing aspect. They had ideas of their own, but when they saw what came back from the story board testing, they knew they’d be putting their own spin on one of the concepts that NAPA’s audience had already said they liked. Says Armani, “At the end of the day, if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Sometimes clients don’t know what they want. And Whadif is about what the people want.”

When we asked Armani what “the best work wins” means to him and Tiffany, he said, “It means there’s no politics. There’s no room for subjectivity, people playing favorites or a client liking things because it reminds them of something else. When we make projects, we don’t make projects for brands, we make it for the people. You want the audience, the customers to love the commercial. It doesn’t matter if I think it’s the smartest in the world…if the people don’t like it, I’ve missed the mark. If the people like it, they like it. I like when it’s about the people.”

Following many rounds of testing, we have announced the next phase of the Mt. Pleasant project - video! We extend a big thanks to everyone who submitted in the idea phase and congratulate our three winners on submitting such great concepts!

We received lots of wonderful submissions - the creativity we saw in this phase was boundless. We didn’t know there were so many ways to feature a pet placement service, but you guys came through! Since we were only working with three top spots (unlike the 10 we had for NAPA), it would have been awfully tough to make the selection on our own.

After carefully constructing our ideation survey, we posed the series of questions about a random selection of concepts to hundreds of people in Mt. Pleasant’s demographic. Over the course of the test, we learned that this audience favored simple ideas over complex. They valued clarity over nuance. And the emotional impact of the spot - the feelings that could be elicited from a 256 character idea - was paramount.

We now open it back up to you to take one of the winning ideas - or even an idea that didn’t win that you believe in - and create a video for Mt. Pleasant. If you have questions or feedback about the project, let us know in the forum! And remember that all work for Mt. Pleasant can be claimed as a charitable donation on your 2014 taxes.

We received 27 story boards for NAPA Auto Parts and embarked on our very first story board testing at the end of April. Each of the 10 concepts was represented with at least one board. Most received 2 or more. "A Father's Legacy," which was the top concept submission, received 7 boards! We also received 3 "Renegade" submissions with totally new concepts.

The boards submitted represented a wide variety of artistic skills. Some had stunning hand drawn illustrations. Others utilized photos from the web. We had many creatives submit with cartoon-like illustrations from a story board or comic generator service. 

We embarked on our qualitative testing once all of the submissions were in. We surveyed a national representation of NAPA's target audience and tallied up the votes on over 900 responses.

What we found we had not predicted, but made sense. 

The story board testing told us that the real weight was carried in the descriptions - the voiceover/dialogue and the action. The visuals acted as a companion, but could not carry the story. As with the ideas, the clear, concise stories did the best in the testing - ones that had a succinct setup, action and payoff at the end. The artwork definitely drew people to certain boards, but we found that once the testers read the script and action, the visuals mattered less. The story boards that performed the best had a script that read like a TV commercial. This allowed people to visualize and really "hear" the spot playing out in their imagination.

As you can see from the results, Broken Down Marine and A Father's Legacy were the clear winning concepts that resonated with NAPA's target audience. The more subtle and true of a story, the better the story board performed. Ideas that tried to be overly patriotic or seemed unreasonable did not connect with viewers. The military imagery and stories aligned with the target's perception of NAPA and spoke to them on an emotional level. We also found that the more involved the tester was with DIY repairs, the more attracted they were to concepts that showed military personnel in heroic roles.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! Because we're racing to the finish line in the NAPA Auto Parts project beginning this week.

We're accepting rough cut video submissions until Monday, May 19th. If you want to get your slice of the $46,000 up for grabs in the video phase, check out the project page and get started!

We couldn't be more proud of our community. The story board phase for NAPA Auto Parts was a success!

Each of the 10 winning concepts was represented with at least one board. Most received 2 or more. "A Father's Legacy", which was the top concept submission, received 7 boards! We also received 3 "Renegade" submissions with totally new concepts.

I was introduced to the WhadIf concept over a fire pit in an extremely close friend’s backyard. Of course, the man introducing me to the idea was our esteemed design director. Though I barely knew him at the time, I was captivated by the ideas being put forth by this pleasantly bearded fellow. I understood at once that what he was proposing was big. Upon meeting the founder and the rest of the (unbelievable) team, I knew it would succeed.

In Los Angeles I had learned while working at MediaMax Online that to succeed on the web your company needs to be a bridge. Be neither the creator nor the receiver, be what connects the creator and the receiver. It’s profoundly simple to understand. I am passionate about Whadif because it is not just a bridge, it is an airport. Whadif is connecting brands with data, data with content, users with brands, and so on. This marriage of Big Data and Big Creative will change the creative process.

How Whadif Works

From start to finish, our projects follow the traditional 4 step creative process (Idea, Story Board, Rough Cut, Final Production), but with a twist.

Each phase is broken out as its own individual project. Everyone gets a chance to submit in each phase, which means an equal chance to bring home an award! You don’t need to submit to each phase to win in another.

Testing

Not that we don’t think you are brilliant but we are entering a new era of marketing where we can test the heck out of everything. That’s exactly what we are applying to the video process.

At the end of each phase, we will run a series of qualitative tests to see which idea resonates the most with the client’s target audience (We won’t show My Little Pony concepts to retired army veterans). The viewers (not the client) will decide which ideas move onto the next phase.

Winning Ideas

We notify the winners and send instructions to receive the awards. The winning submissions will be posted back on the project page for everyone to enter into the next phase of the project.

Note: The top winner of both the Idea and Story Board phase will receive an additional bonus.

So, let’s break it down.

The first thing we do is meet with the client to develop a strategy that fits in line with their project goals. Out of this meeting derives a project brief, goals and objectives, and any marketing materials needed. As with any project of this nature, please make sure you read these materials in order to make sure your concept is in line with the clients objectives. Concepts that do not fit the clients objectives will not make it to the next phase.

Step One: Idea Phase

We start out with the Idea Phase. We’re looking for a brilliant concept for a video that captures the clients goals and resonates with their target audience in 256 characters or less. You must be able to explain your concept in a simple and clear manner.

Concept Testing...

Step Two: Story Boards

The top performing ideas are posted back on the project page for your submission. You can submit a story board based upon a winning idea. We ask you to submit 6 visual panels (min. 800px by 450px, 16:9 ratio) accompanied by a description outlining the action and an area for the voice/dialogue.

Going Rogue

If you really feel that you have a killer concept not on the list you can try and submit a renegade board - based upon your own idea!

Story Board Testing...

Step There: Rough Cut

Pick a winning story board and create your video. You want to make sure the viewers will be able to judge your rough cut for its merits - story, characters, clever dialogue, compelling action.

Rough Cut Testing...

Step Four: Final Production

If you win a Rough Cut award, you’ll be asked to finish your spot for the Final Production Phase. This is the only phase that requires you win a previous phase to enter. We test the final productions and the winners receive an additional award!

These videos go to the client so they can show the world your amazing work. Cue the fame and fortune!